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link in the show notes. Previously

0:49

on Hot Money, the pressure

0:51

on Daniel Kinahan is rising. His

0:53

partners in the Dubai supercartel are

0:55

starting to fall, and police

0:57

around the world are working on a secret

1:00

plan to take him down for good. It's

1:05

the morning of April twelfth, twenty twenty

1:07

two, and reporters and crews

1:10

arrive at a press conference in Dublin that's been

1:12

called by the Irish Police.

1:14

Officially, there'll be an update on how

1:16

law enforcement agencies are working together

1:19

to collaborate against international organized

1:21

crime, but it's a bit vague, perhaps

1:24

suspiciously vague, and journalists

1:26

they're starting to speculate about what this press conference

1:29

is really about. Behind

1:31

the scenes. John O'Driscoll is getting

1:34

nervous. John's assistant

1:36

Commissioner in charge of Serious organized

1:38

crime. Ever since his meeting

1:40

with US officials three years before, he's

1:42

been working on a single objective. And

1:45

the press conference this morning in Dublin it's

1:47

going to be the moment he finally gets

1:49

to announce it to the world. But

1:51

John knows that if work gets out, it

1:54

could all fall apart.

1:56

He's chosen the venue carefully.

1:59

I said that, beyond

2:01

any doubt, it was not going to take place

2:04

in those rooms that we

2:06

may have had press conferences

2:08

relate to the ken Hens previously.

2:11

Instead, it would take place in Dublin

2:14

City Hall. It's the right sort of setting

2:16

for a historic announcement. Marble

2:18

flows, huge classical pillars and

2:20

statues on ancient Roman style plints.

2:23

The holding of the event in City Hall was

2:26

important, first of all because

2:28

it is that one for building that it is,

2:31

but also it is situated

2:33

in south inner city Dublin, which

2:36

is where the Kenhn organization emerged

2:38

from.

2:40

Quietly, senior officials

2:42

from various foreign police forces have been

2:44

flying into Dublin. People from

2:46

the US Treasury, DA and

2:48

Customs and Border protection officials

2:51

from Europole and the UK's National

2:53

Crime Agency, including Deputy

2:55

Director of Investigations Matt

2:57

Horn.

2:58

We derived the day before from the

3:00

UK and had been extremely well looked after

3:03

by the GUARDA from the airport, and

3:06

you know they were keeping a very close eye on ask to

3:08

make sure that all the all of us representatives

3:10

of the international law enforcement community

3:12

were sort well looks after and well protected.

3:15

And despite all these high profile police

3:17

officers arriving in Dublin at exactly

3:20

the same time, John's been able to keep

3:22

things under wraps. Everyone's

3:24

now seated, The whole falls

3:26

quiet in anticipation, and

3:28

John walks out onto the stage. Within

3:31

minutes, the kinner Hands will become

3:33

some of the most wanted men on the planet.

3:42

I'm Miles Johnson and from the Financial

3:44

Times and Pushkin Industries. This

3:46

is hot money The New Narcos,

3:49

Episode eight, The Red Notebook.

4:12

Back when I started at the FT as a

4:14

trainee reporter fifteen years ago, I

4:16

never expected I'd end up writing about

4:19

organized crime. We covered

4:21

things like the stock market and mergers

4:23

and acquisitions. There was this

4:26

very clear boundary back then between

4:28

the world. We wrote about the world

4:30

of business, CEOs and politicians

4:33

and the underworld, but

4:35

something's changed since then. The

4:37

line between criminal activity and state

4:39

backed enterprise, between big

4:42

business and gangsters has

4:44

become fuzzier. We

4:46

live in a time where some heads of state

4:48

increasingly act like crime bosses, and

4:51

the crime bosses they act like the heads

4:53

of multinational companies. It

4:55

could be a world leader investing billions

4:57

into startups and tech companies, but

5:00

at the same time ordering the murder of

5:02

dissidents abroad. It could be

5:04

North Korean state hackers stealing bitcoins

5:07

to fun missile programs, or Emmeinin

5:09

backed tycoons using mercenary armies

5:12

to mine for gold in Africa. Or

5:15

it could be a cocaine cartel hiding

5:17

out in Dubai while carrying out contract

5:19

killings in Europe for a sanctioned regime.

5:23

It's all part of the rise of a new

5:25

type of criminal boss, one backed

5:28

by authoritarian governments. I

5:30

called them state backed gangsters,

5:32

and they're thriving at a time when the world

5:35

is becoming more fragmented and more

5:37

chaotic. Reporting

5:40

on the Dubai supercartel, I've discovered

5:42

that European drug traffickers have been taking

5:44

advantage of the same money laundering channels

5:46

that Iran uses to evade Western

5:49

sanctions. That seems to

5:51

be the reason why international criminals

5:53

have become unlikely bedfellows with a theocratic

5:56

regime. That press

5:58

conference that John's arranged, he knows

6:00

it could be the beginning of the end for

6:02

the supercartel. But

6:05

before we get to that, I want to take a

6:07

little detour because

6:09

there's an important question from the start

6:11

of this series that we still don't have an

6:13

answer to. The murder Broker

6:16

was convicted for arranging the assassination

6:18

of Alimtamed, the electrician who

6:21

was on the runt from Iran, but

6:23

no one has ever been able to find out who

6:25

in Iran gave the murder broker his

6:28

orders. And enjoying the reporting of

6:30

this series, I came across something that

6:32

might help us get one step closer.

6:35

It was a case that revealed a ton of

6:37

new information about the way that Iran

6:39

secretly pursues its enemies in Europe,

6:42

people like Alim Tamed. And

6:46

there's someone I want to talk to because he

6:48

was directly involved in that case, someone

6:50

who has first hand experience of the long

6:53

history of violence against enemies of

6:55

the Iranian regime wherever they are

6:57

in the world. Husseyin Aberdini

6:59

was born in Iran, but he now lives in London.

7:02

He's in his late fifties and he's quietly

7:04

spoken that he's been fighting for

7:06

most of his life.

7:08

I have been with the resistance

7:11

over three decades now, nearly

7:13

four decades.

7:15

In the spring of nineteen ninety, Hussein

7:17

was a young activist and he was in Turkey.

7:20

He says he traveled there to try and stop the

7:22

deportation of Iranian refugees who'd

7:24

crossed the border illegally. One

7:27

day in Istanbul, he's in a car with

7:29

two colleagues. They're on the motorway

7:32

when suddenly something blocks the road

7:34

ahead.

7:35

The traffic slows down. Hussein's

7:37

up front, sitting next to the driver, and

7:39

all.

7:40

Of a sudden we heard, you know, the

7:42

sound of bullets. They

7:44

riddled our car from the bag.

7:47

Hussein barely has time to take in that

7:49

someone is shooting at them when a car smashes

7:51

into the front of their vehicle.

7:53

They can't drive away and.

7:55

Another car pinned us from behind.

7:59

It was then which I realized,

8:01

you know, this was this was an assassination

8:04

or kidnapping.

8:06

A man jumps out of the vehicle in front, the

8:08

one that's just plowed into their car.

8:10

He's holding a revolver.

8:12

And it was only I think a couple of meters

8:14

before he reached our car. I

8:17

tried to do something. There was a briefcase

8:20

belonging to my female colleague

8:22

and sitting the back of the car,

8:24

so I just took dad, opened

8:26

the door and went to stop him.

8:29

He's clutching the briefcase like a shield

8:32

as the man starts shooting.

8:33

First bullet hit my chest and

8:36

I didn't know how many bullets, you know, I

8:39

received then, and I

8:42

just fell down, fell

8:45

down in the street.

8:47

Saint's lying on the ground, bleeding,

8:49

and he can see the man walk up to him. He's

8:51

preparing to take a final shot, but

8:56

nothing happens.

8:59

The bullet jammed and

9:01

the muzzle of the gun.

9:04

That's a Saint's first lucky break. The

9:07

traffic starts to move again, and the assassin

9:09

take off. Hussein desperately

9:11

needs to get to the hospital, but the car he

9:13

was in is smashed up, and everyone

9:16

else on the motorway they seemed to be trying to run

9:18

away as quickly as they can.

9:20

I remember very vaguely that

9:22

my colleague threw herself, you know, in front of

9:24

one of the cars, and there

9:27

was a taxi which has stopped and

9:29

I was put at the back of the taxi and

9:33

I just got

9:35

unconscious. The hospital

9:37

was only three minutes away. If it was

9:39

further than that, I wouldn't make it.

9:43

Hussein fell into a coma. It would

9:45

be fifty days before he woke up. He

9:47

was told that one bullet had passed very close

9:49

to his heart and another had destroyed

9:52

his liver. But even at the hospital

9:54

he's not safe. The killers

9:57

they come back, and this time

9:59

they're posing as his friends.

10:01

But my true friends arrived

10:04

and they were told, you know that there are other people

10:06

who wanted to come and see me. And

10:09

then those people escaped

10:12

from the scene when they realized, you know, there

10:14

were people, my true friends, you know, we're

10:16

there.

10:17

That's the same second stroke of luck, and

10:19

there'll be a third one as well. When the killers

10:21

call up, pretending to be the police, they

10:24

tell the hospital staff that they know Hussein

10:26

is now conscious and they want to interview him

10:28

about what happened.

10:30

But the president of Turkey in those

10:32

days was Tolgodozol and his mother, you

10:34

know, was in the same hospital. The president

10:36

wanted to come and visit his mother, and

10:41

they sailed off the whole area

10:43

hospital and they

10:45

realized there was another branch of police who

10:47

wanted to come and see me, and

10:50

they found out there was a Bogos call.

10:52

It was the Ranian regime who wanted

10:54

to get rid of me because they

10:56

didn't want me to speak. That was very

10:59

pure luck.

11:01

That was more than thirty years ago. Hussein

11:04

tells me he's still affected every day

11:06

by the damaged onto his liver in that attack. He's

11:09

one of the rare survivors of an assassination

11:11

attempt by the Iranian regime. Several

11:14

of his friends and colleagues have been murdered since

11:16

then. Today,

11:20

Hussain is a senior member of Iran's

11:22

main foreign opposition group, the National

11:24

Council of Resistance of Iran or the NCRI.

11:28

SO the main objective of the National

11:30

Council of Resistance of Iran is to establish

11:33

a democratic and the secular government

11:36

in Iran. Its main principle,

11:38

of course, has been against any dictatorship,

11:41

whether there's the formula dictatorship

11:43

of the Shah or the present

11:46

medieval dictatorship of the Mullahs.

11:49

The NCRI, it's an umbrella organization,

11:52

and one of the largest groups within it is called

11:54

the People's Mojahdeen Organization

11:56

of Iran, known by its Farsi initials

11:59

me e K now the

12:01

MEK, it hasn't always had the

12:03

West's approval. It was implicated

12:06

in several terrorist attacks against Iran,

12:08

including the nineteen eighty one bombing

12:10

that Tehran claimed was carried out by Ali

12:12

matamed the Quiet Electrician.

12:15

In the Netherlands.

12:17

From nineteen ninety seven to twenty twelve,

12:19

the mk was designated as a terror

12:21

organization by the US government, But

12:23

over the past decade it's refashioned

12:25

itself and now it's a pretty influential

12:27

opposition voice on Iran. But

12:30

for all its acceptance by Western powers,

12:32

the NCRI remains a top target

12:34

of the Iranian regime. In

12:37

June twenty eighteen, Hussain and his colleagues

12:39

are in Paris. They're holding a huge

12:42

meeting, a rally called the Free Iran

12:44

World Summit.

12:46

Tens of thousands of Iranians with many non

12:48

Iranian supporters of the resistance

12:51

who came from sixty seven

12:53

different countries throughout the ward.

12:56

Dozens of foreign politicians are invited as

12:58

well, and everyone convenes in a vast

13:00

conference center. It's

13:02

only afterwards the Hussain finds

13:04

out what very nearly happened.

13:06

I think it was on the first of July. The next day

13:09

that was told by a friend that the Belgian

13:12

Featheral police,

13:14

you know, they had arrested two

13:17

Iranians who are trying, you know, to bring a bomb.

13:21

Belgian police had arrested two Iranians

13:23

who were on their way to the Paris conference center

13:26

with a bomb. It's another lucky

13:28

escape for Hussein and hundreds of other people.

13:31

And as police investigate the failed bomb

13:33

plot, they're going to discover something

13:35

that I believe could shed new light on

13:38

the murder of Alimtomed. It's the most

13:40

important discovery in decades about

13:42

how Iran targets its enemies abroad.

13:45

And this time the clues aren't just

13:47

glimpses, hints or encryptied

13:49

messages. They're in a battered, red

13:52

notebook filled with handwritten notes,

13:54

sitting in the back of a car.

14:12

So Hussein and his colleagues they discover

14:14

that someone had tried to plant a bomb at

14:16

the rally in Paris, and at the same

14:19

time, police in Germany arrest

14:21

an Iranian man on a highway in Bavaria.

14:24

His name is Assa Dolla Asadi

14:27

and officially he's the third councilor

14:30

of the Iranian Embassy in Vienna. He

14:32

arrived in Europe in twenty fourteen, but

14:35

in reality he's a top spy

14:37

for Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security.

14:40

It's Iran's equivalent of the CIA or

14:43

MI six. Assadi

14:45

is running a network of agents across Europe,

14:48

meeting them in cafes in small medieval

14:50

towns and handing over secret instructions

14:52

or bundles of cash. And months

14:55

before the Paris rally, he traveled

14:57

to Tehran, returning to Europe

14:59

with a sophisticated bomb hidden

15:01

in his diplomatic luggage. The

15:04

bombs made from an explosive known as Tatp

15:07

or Mother of Satan, extremely

15:09

volatile. Asardi carries

15:11

it on too Luxembourg and hands it over to his

15:14

agents. In this part of the story,

15:16

it's a bit less like a Lacarian novel because

15:18

the venue he chooses it's a pizza

15:21

hut. He gives them the bomb

15:23

with instructions for planting it at the Paris

15:25

rally, and the code word he uses is

15:27

PlayStation. But what Asardi

15:30

doesn't know is that European intelligence

15:32

agencies have been watching his every move and

15:34

know exactly what he's been planning. They

15:36

even disabled the airport security scanner

15:38

so he could get through. The

15:42

two agents are arrested as they travel

15:44

from Brussels to Paris. Assardi

15:46

is pulled over by the police on a motorway

15:48

in Germany, and in the back of his car

15:51

they find a battered, red notebook

15:53

filled with handwritten notes, notes

15:56

that reveal that Asardi was involved

15:58

in way more than one bomb plot.

16:01

Assadi has listed hundreds of different meetings

16:04

with agents across Europe. He's

16:06

itemized cash payments he's made to spies,

16:08

and he's listed more than two hundred places

16:10

he's visited as part of his work in eleven

16:12

different countries. Because

16:15

as Sardi, according to the findings of a

16:17

Belgian criminal court, is part of a secret

16:19

unit of Iranian foreign intelligence, a

16:22

sort of murder squad in Europe.

16:24

It's called Department three one two

16:28

and its role is to kill opponents of the

16:30

regime abroad. There's

16:33

not much public information about Department

16:35

three one two, but what we do know it's

16:38

pretty terrifying. It's

16:40

thought to be a top secret unit that specializes

16:43

in spying on human rights activists,

16:45

journalists and others who the Iranian

16:47

regime believed to be a threat, but

16:50

was Ali Mtummed one of their targets.

16:54

We know that Assardi arrived in his new

16:56

job in June twenty fourteen, a

16:58

little over a year before Alie Mtummd was

17:00

killed outside his house in ol Mayor. It

17:03

was the first successful targeted assassination

17:05

carried out by Iran in Western Europe in

17:07

over twenty three years. And

17:10

then two years later, in twenty seventeen,

17:12

while Assardi was still free, another

17:15

Iranian opposition.

17:16

Member was gunned down in the Netherlands.

17:19

So we can say that Assadi arrives

17:21

in Vienna in late twenty fourteen and

17:24

then suddenly Iran is linked

17:26

to several assassinations in Europe.

17:30

This isn't conclusive evidence, but

17:32

according to the Belgian criminal court documents

17:35

targeting dissidents, that was Assadi's

17:37

job, so it makes sense that

17:39

he would at least be a suspect in the Matamad murder.

17:43

And we also know that Assadi he was reporting

17:45

into really top people in Iran, including

17:48

the Deputy Minister of Intelligence After

17:51

his arrest for the bomb plot, Assardi's put

17:53

on trial in Belgium and he gets prison

17:55

visits from some of Iran's most senior spies

17:58

and other officials from its foreign ministry. They

18:00

clearly cared a lot about this case. The

18:04

criminal case against Assadi was brought by

18:06

the Belgian government, but there were also twenty

18:09

five five others who joined as private plaintiffs.

18:11

They were all at the Paris rally, and Hussein

18:14

was one of them, and it gave him access to all

18:16

the prosecution's evidence. He sent

18:18

me the files. This is hundreds

18:20

of pages of documents in several European

18:23

languages, and there's also extracts from Asardi's

18:25

red notebook. And there's something

18:28

else, something that I think could be important.

18:30

Assardi's job meant that he had to travel

18:33

a lot on work trips across Europe

18:35

to meet with his various agents. And

18:38

it turns out that even spies used

18:40

booking dot Com, the huge online travel

18:42

agent, to book their hotels, or at least

18:44

Assadi did, and the details of

18:46

all those bookings they're in the files.

18:50

So I'm sat here in the offices of the Financial

18:52

Times looking.

18:53

At these records.

18:54

Every hotel Assadi stayed in over

18:56

his four years operating in Europe.

18:59

For some of the bookings he used his official

19:02

Iranian Foreign Ministry email address.

19:04

For others it was burner accounts from Yahoo

19:07

and Gmail. I

19:09

should have met his agents in some pretty low key locations,

19:12

and he often seemed to book two hotels

19:14

in different places for the same night, maybe

19:16

thinking it would throw off anyone who was following

19:19

him. In the records, they

19:21

do show that he traveled to the Netherlands

19:24

on the sixth of September twenty sixteen,

19:26

less than a year after Mtammad was murdered.

19:29

He stayed at the Best Western in the Hague

19:31

for one night. The next

19:33

evening, Assadi booked two hotel rooms,

19:36

one in the Dutch town of Meppel and another

19:38

in swart Sluice, both really small

19:40

towns. And in April twenty

19:42

seventeen, Assardi booked a room at the Savoy

19:45

Amsterdam for one of his agents. So

19:47

we know he was working in the Netherlands

19:49

and around the same time that Ali Mctammad was

19:52

murdered. It's

19:54

far from a smoking gun, but

19:56

it's enough enough for me to ask

19:58

Kasain does he think that Asardi

20:01

could have been connected to the murder of Mohammed

20:03

Reza Kalahi, also known

20:05

as Alimtammad. I

20:07

lay out what we know, so

20:10

he.

20:10

Arrives, Assadi arrives in Austria

20:12

in twenty fourteen, and then in twenty

20:15

fifteen, a man called

20:19

Mohammed Reza Kolahi, who was

20:21

living in a town and al Mayor, was shot

20:24

and killed outside his house. The

20:26

murder has never been solved.

20:29

They know who shot him, they

20:31

know who told those people to

20:34

shoot him. The Dutch government

20:36

then said we believe the

20:38

Iranian regime was behind this murder,

20:40

and they expelled to diplomat. But there's

20:43

never been any any

20:45

further information about who could have coordinated

20:47

a plot like that. Do you think

20:50

it's reasonable to assume that Asadi

20:53

could have been behind something like that.

20:56

Well, I don't have a precise

20:58

information about this case, but it

21:01

I think makes sense to believe that. Of

21:04

course, I mean, then Asadi

21:06

was the you know, the head of this intelligence

21:10

section in mainly

21:13

the Western Europe. I

21:15

think that is this could very

21:17

well be I mean I said, it could very

21:19

well be behind that.

21:20

So it's reasonable to assume, you know, we have a

21:23

spy working under diplomatic

21:25

cover who is in charge of all of Western

21:27

Europe, and his focus is effectively

21:32

organizing assassination

21:35

attempts against opposition

21:37

figures. So it's a reasonable

21:39

assumption to think that of

21:42

the assassinations or attempted assassinations

21:45

that occurred in Western Europe after twenty

21:47

fourteen, he presumably

21:49

would have had to have some.

21:51

He's had a hand in his hand in it.

21:53

Absolutely what

21:56

he say says.

21:57

Of course, it doesn't prove anything, but

21:59

at the very least Assadi has

22:01

to be considered a suspect. There's

22:03

this new wave of assassinations in Europe,

22:06

all connected to the Iranian state, and

22:08

they begin after Assards posted

22:10

to Vienna in twenty fourteen, and

22:13

the first is the murder of

22:15

an electrician in a small Dutch town.

22:17

A year later, Assadi

22:20

is convicted for the attempted bombing in Paris

22:22

and he's sentenced to twenty years for attempted

22:25

murder and plotting a terrorist attack. Iran

22:27

denies any involvement, but will never

22:30

know if he was involved in Ali Mahommed's

22:32

death because after Asadi

22:34

is convicted, a Belgian aid worker

22:36

is arrested in Iran on these trumped up charges

22:38

of espionage and sentenced to forty years

22:41

in prison and seventy four lashes. Then

22:44

in May twenty twenty three, the Belgian

22:46

government agrees to exchange Assadi for the

22:48

aid worker, So Assardi

22:50

he's now back in Iran and his notebook

22:53

aside. He's taken his secrets with him.

23:07

It's the twelfth of April twenty twenty and

23:10

we're back in Dublin City Hall. The

23:12

entire time, John O'Driscoll has been working on a plan

23:15

to sanction the Kinahans. He's been worried

23:17

about it leaking because he knows

23:19

if the news gets out, they'll quickly be

23:21

able to hide their assets before they're frozen.

23:23

Today's a landmark day.

23:25

But now the Kinahans have run out of.

23:27

Time and in particular against

23:29

the Kenahan organized crime gang.

23:31

John's boss, Drew Harris, Commissioner

23:34

of the Irish Police, steps up to the podium.

23:36

This organized crime gang started life

23:39

as a sopha inner city Dublin drug dealers,

23:42

but has grown over the decades to become a

23:44

transnational crime cartel

23:46

that is estimated to have generated over

23:49

one billion euro for them.

23:51

Then a senior official from the US Treasury

23:53

announces the news that will make headlines

23:55

around the world.

23:57

So, as of today, the Kinahan

23:59

transnational criminal Organization joins

24:01

the ranks of Italy's Camorra, Mexico's

24:04

Los Zetas, Japan's

24:07

Yakuza, in Russia's

24:10

Thieves in Law. Also,

24:12

as of today, the result of of these sanctions,

24:15

these individuals are immediately served from the US

24:17

financial system and

24:19

in the assets brought property under US

24:22

jurisdiction are immediate blocked.

24:23

At this moment, we have to stop here

24:25

for a minute just to take this all in. It's utterly

24:28

remarkable. A

24:31

criminal family that began in a Dublin

24:33

flat in the nineteen eighties is now being

24:35

compared to the Yakuza and Camorra

24:37

crime groups whose origins date back hundreds

24:40

of years. They've been sanctioned

24:42

by the US government, one of a handful

24:45

of organized crime groups to ever face that kind

24:47

of penalty, and the US

24:49

also puts a five million dollar bounty

24:51

on the heads of Christy Daniel and

24:54

his brother Christopher Jr. Calling

24:56

their organization a threat to the

24:58

entire Lizard economy through its role in

25:00

international money laundering. Detective

25:04

Chief Superintendent Seamus Poland he

25:06

knows that the US sanctions will destroy

25:09

the in a hands chance of continuing their life

25:11

of luxury in Dubai.

25:13

Because the dangers with sanctions

25:16

is that if any legitimate business

25:18

engages with somebody who's on a sanctions

25:21

list, they're actually the people who are

25:23

committing the criminal offenses, and they risk all

25:25

their assets being seized and they risk being prosecuted.

25:28

So, you know, avenues to live

25:31

the high life that you would have had before

25:33

are closed down very very quickly. You

25:35

know, people end up with so much money

25:38

from cocaine trafficking. Behind

25:41

all this, it's all about greed. You

25:43

have money to try and live in your big house, drive

25:45

your fancy car, fly business

25:47

class all across the world, stay in the best

25:49

hotels. What the sanctions

25:52

actually does is it removes a

25:54

lot of the facilitation that

25:56

would be possible for people to live their

25:58

lives and to benefit

26:00

from the illicit wealth that they've

26:03

actually achieved.

26:05

Soon, the United Ara memorates freeze

26:07

Daniel's assets too, and they empower their

26:09

own sanctions on the Kinnahans in Dubai,

26:12

removing one of the last places on Earth

26:14

they can hide the Kinahans.

26:16

They go on the run.

26:18

Significant parties within the Kinahan

26:20

organized crime group all went to ground

26:24

and have been attempting to

26:26

evade justice and hide in the shadows

26:28

since that date. But from our own

26:31

information and intelligence

26:33

and conversations with other criminals

26:35

as well, you know, I think this took

26:38

to a different level because the

26:41

criminal on the world in Europe didn't

26:44

anticipate that sanctions was

26:46

something that would happen on this side of the Atlantic.

26:50

But the strange thing is it's been more than

26:52

a year since that big announcement in Dublin

26:54

and the Kinnahans they're all still at large.

26:57

It's not clear where they are. I've

26:59

heard multiple rumors something that they're

27:01

still in the UAE, living on the false identities.

27:05

Others think that there's somewhere else in the Middle East laying

27:08

low. Even had speculation

27:10

that they're building connections with Putin's

27:12

Russia. So I asked

27:14

Seamus, why haven't the police

27:16

been able to bring them in yet.

27:19

Well, investigations are still ongoing as

27:22

well at the moment, so the sanctions

27:25

was only one phase of a

27:27

much wider investigation that

27:30

that's continuously ongoing

27:32

and taking place. And

27:35

as was announced in April twenty

27:37

twenty two at

27:40

the designation as well. You

27:42

know, extradition warrants were

27:44

in place for one of the principles who's

27:48

sought for charges in relation

27:50

to murder and directing organized

27:52

crime, and that's still outstanding

27:55

as well. But you can rest assured

27:58

that that investigations

28:00

are continuing actively across

28:04

many different jurisdictions.

28:07

For a few.

28:08

Years, the men one who gathered at Daniel Kinahan's

28:10

wedding in twenty seventeen seemed almost

28:13

invincible. They created a

28:15

new model, stateless gangsters,

28:17

using modern technology to run global

28:19

mafias in ways that were impossible

28:21

a few decades before. But

28:24

eventually their reputation caught

28:26

up with them. They made the mistake

28:28

of becoming too public, too

28:30

brazen. I

28:33

began reporting on this story because I think

28:35

it tells us something important about how the

28:37

world is changing and the global

28:39

shifts that made the Dubai Supercartel

28:41

possible. They're only accelerating

28:45

the criminals of the future. I think

28:47

they're going to be more global, more

28:49

sophisticated, and more dangerous, and

28:51

I think it's going to get harder to tell if someone's

28:54

a gangster, a businessman, or

28:56

both. The story

28:58

of the Supercartel for me It's an ominous

29:00

sign of these new hybrid

29:02

threats that democracies face and

29:05

of government's weakening ability to fight

29:07

them. The sanctions against

29:09

the Kinnahans, they've been hailed as a victory,

29:12

a landmark in coordinated action

29:14

by Western governments to take down a major

29:16

crime group. But

29:18

there's something I've kept asking myself.

29:21

With the sanctions a show of strength

29:24

or really just a sign of weakness. Some

29:28

of the world's most powerful governments have teamed

29:31

up to go after the Kinnahans, but a

29:33

year later, they're still out there. So

29:36

the Dubai supercartel may be finished,

29:38

but its model will live on, and

29:41

perhaps something new and maybe

29:43

worse, will take its place. In

29:46

fact, somewhere out there, it

29:49

probably already has.

29:56

Not.

29:56

Long before the sanctions were announced, Rafael

29:58

Imperiale, the Van Goff boss,

30:00

was arrested in Dubai and sent to Italy.

30:04

He since agreed to become a state's witness,

30:06

and in November twenty twenty three, he

30:08

told Hallian prosecutors he would sell

30:10

off his eighty million dollar private island

30:12

in Dubai in the hope of his sentence

30:15

being reduced. MTK,

30:17

the boxing company that Daniel Kinahan co

30:20

founded It closes and

30:23

back in the Netherlands where we began our story,

30:25

Paul Urks, the crime reporter, has

30:27

been able to come out of police protection and return

30:30

to his normal life.

30:32

We want dur life back in full, so

30:34

not riding an armored gah, but

30:37

riding the bike and sitting down.

30:39

A terrace uleas a Eliam,

30:42

the local councilor and our mayor who campaigned

30:44

about the Alimtamid murder. Well, he's now

30:46

a national politician. In twenty

30:49

twenty one, he was elected to the Dutch

30:51

Parliament.

30:52

Look, you know, I was like this baby when I

30:54

got here. My father had like twenty

30:56

dollars in his pocket. But the honor

30:59

of representing the Dutch people's it's massive

31:01

for me. My goal in life

31:03

is defending democracy, defending

31:06

freedom, and that relates to the story of my dad

31:08

and also this story. Look how dangerous

31:11

the world around us can be.

31:13

In the Kinahans, they have to

31:15

live every day knowing they're being hunted

31:17

by police.

31:19

For MIKEE.

31:20

Oysullivan, the man who first arrested

31:22

Christy Kinahan in a Dublin flat back in

31:24

the nineteen eighties, it's only a matter

31:26

of time you.

31:28

Feel like saying to them, did you not think

31:30

this stay had come? By doing what you're

31:32

doing? Better

31:34

people than them have been got

31:38

and they have made themselves a

31:41

global target. And

31:44

with the DEA on your case, the

31:46

world is a small place and it gets smaller.

32:04

Pot Money is a production of The Financial

32:06

Times and Pushkin Industries. It

32:08

was written and reports by me Miles Johnson,

32:11

and if you've got any leads or information about this story,

32:13

you can email me at New Narcos at

32:15

FT dot com. The series

32:18

producer is Peggy Sutton. Edith

32:20

Russello is the associate producer. Fact

32:22

Checking is by Arthur Gompertz, engineering

32:25

by Sarah Bruguerer, sound

32:27

design from Jake Gorski. Jeremy

32:30

Warmsley wrote the original music. Our

32:32

editor is Sarah Nix and the executive

32:35

producers are Jacob Goldstein and Cheryl

32:37

Brumley. Special thanks

32:39

to Ruler Calaff, Laura Dubois,

32:42

Peter Spiegel, Tofa Forehez,

32:44

Manuela Saragoza, Breen Turner,

32:47

John Schnaz, Jacob Wiseberg,

32:49

Alistair Mackie, Laura Clark,

32:52

Nigel Hansson, Paulo, Pascual,

32:54

Minnie Advincoula, Dan Dombi,

32:57

Tom Braithway, Ronda Taylor,

32:59

Matt Vela, Alex Barker, Patricia

33:02

Nilsen.

33:03

Matt Garahan, Madison

33:04

Marriage, Paul Murphy, rich

33:07

Ward Arley Adlington, Marsha

33:09

Wolraven, Jude Webber, Harry

33:12

Brodie, Eric Sandler, Nicole

33:14

op den Bosch, Christina Sullivan,

33:17

Vicky Merrick, Jake Flanagan and

33:19

Greta Cone